Impala Facts

About the impala

Also called the rooibok, the impala stands 70 to 92 cm at the shoulder and weighs 40 to 65 kg. Males carry slender, lyre-shaped horns 45 to 92 cm long. Its scientific name means black-footed high-horn in Ancient Greek. Two subspecies exist: the common impala of grasslands and the larger, darker black-faced impala of drier scrubland. It stays near water, in woodlands and where woodland meets savannah.

Impalas are active mostly by day and form three kinds of groups: female herds, bachelor herds and territorial males. They both browse and graze, eating grasses and other plants, fruits and acacia pods when they can find them. A three-week rut usually comes in May, near the end of the wet season. After six to seven months, a single calf is born and hidden right away.

Did you know?

• German zoologist Hinrich Lichtenstein first described the impala to Europeans in 1812.
• The impala is the only living member of the genus Aepyceros.
• Young male impalas are pushed out of female groups and join bachelor herds.